China's Long March! How about our March to Withcott?

TRC Mayor Peter Taylor is trying for a million signatures on a petition to convince Kevin Rudd and Ann Blight that citizens in Toowoomba and right out to the South Australian border want a new Range Crossing NOW – with an abrupt end to political shilyshallying.

Now, with the Olympic Games, still making us “think China” here is the history of China’s magnificent sacrifical “Long March” – maybe we should all set off down the Range to Withcott ….. !!

One of the most epic military expeditions in history and one of the mostamazing physical feats ever attempted, the Long March of 1934-5 is hailed as a key moment in Chinese history. Surrounded by hostile armies, Mao Zedong’s 87,000-strong Communist army escaped and travelled nearly 6,000 miles on foot in just one year. Now, in a gripping new film by Emmy award-winning producer John Corry, the survivors tell their stories of endurance against overwhelming odds.

The Long March took place during China’s bitter civil war between the Nationalist government and the Communists. By April 1934, the Reds faced defeat at the hands of the superior Nationalist army, led by General Chiang Kai-Shek.

To the Nationalists, the Communists’ promise of a fairer society represented a grave threat to the old order. Chiang was determined to crush the Communists forever, and it took a radical plan by the Red Army’s leaders to save their movement from extinction.

The Communist generals decided to escape to a safer part of the country where they could regroup. Mao Zedong, though not at this stage the Communist leader, was a firm believer in guerrilla tactics and supported the decision.

So began the Long March. In October 1934, 87,000 Communist soldiers began retreating on foot. It took two weeks for General Chiang to realise that his enemy was escaping, and he immediately launched air strikes on the columns, reducing the Red Army’s numbers by a third.

The Communists’ next challenge was to cross the Xiang River, where Chiang had massed 400,000 troops in an effort to waylay them. The Communists managed to form a pontoon bridge across the water, but lost around 50,000 men in the battle that ensued.

As the Red Army generals argued over strategy, Mao Zedong was able to seize control using guerrilla tactics. “He believed in mobility –keeping troops moving,” explains military historian Dr Larry Wortzel. In this way, Mao was the driving force of the Long March, sometimes pushing his people to walk 45 miles a day. His plan was to link up with the Fourth Red Army in the Northwest by making a huge loop around Nationalist territory, through western China.

The first victory for the Communists came when they repelled the Nationalists at Loushan mountain pass, and the Reds gained faith in Mao’s military judgement. The next major battle came at the Dadu River, where the Nationalists failed to destroy a crucial bridge and allowed their enemy to cross. Historians and survivors regard this moment as a turning point – yet the Communists were far from safe.

After 240 days of marching, the Red Army had to cross the treacherous Snowy Mountains. With no experience of climbing, the exhausted soldiers found themselves clambering through dizzying heights, starved of oxygen and food. “We climbed slowly together,” platoon leader Li Qihua recalls.

“Thousands fell down, and no one could save them.” Worse still was the marshland on the other side. Critically short of food, men were reduced to eating belts, weeds and insects. Many died as soon as they lay down. “There are no words to describe the hard life that the Red Army experienced at that time,” one survivor recollects.

After 368 days of marching, Mao’s troops arrived in the safety of Shanxi Province. 95 per cent of them had died along the way. But as the Nationalists became embroiled in fighting the Japanese, Mao found time to rebuild his army – and pave the way for his conquest of China.

Historian John Ellis is in no doubt of the Long March’s legacy: “It’s quite a remarkable achievement for which there is no real parallel throughout human history.” Ellis’s extraordinary documentary film brings one of the 20th century’s most remarkable stories to life.